EAnother medal for Ukraine, a surprise collapse of the world record holder in the 400m hurdles and concerns for the USA ahead of the sprint relay – that was the night at the IAAF World Championships in Eugene.
High jump, women: Indoor world champion Yaroslava Mahuchich won the second medal for Ukraine with silver. The 20-year-old jumped 2.02 meters in the second attempt. Beaten only by new World Champion Eleanor Patterson of Australia, who managed the height on the first attempt, not only beating her personal best but also setting an ocean record. Bronze went to Elena Vallortigara of Italy, who cleared 2.00 meters in the first attempt, relegating second Ukrainian, Irina Geraschenko, to fourth as she needed two attempts for the two meters. “It’s so tough that Jaroslawa is here,” the new world champion paid tribute to the beaten competitor Mahuchich, who even started at the World Championships.
400 meter hurdles, men: Brazilian Alison Dos Santos dominated the race in 46.29 seconds, a new South American record, and finished ahead of two Americans. Like at the Olympics, Rai Benjamin won silver in 46.89 seconds ahead of Trevor Bassitt, who got bronze after a personal best of 47.39 seconds. Two-time world champion, Olympic champion and world record holder Karsten Warholm from Norway, who ran the fabulous time of 45.94 seconds at the Olympic victory in Tokyo last summer, broke in the last 100 meters and finished penultimate, 2.13 seconds behind. Warholm was injured early in the season and didn’t look fit.
1500 Meter: The Scot Jake Wightman surprisingly won gold in 3:29.23 minutes with a world best time and the fastest time of his career, ahead of the big favorite Jakob Ingebrigtsen from Norway. Mohamed Katir from Spain got bronze. “That’s really cool,” said the self-surprised Wightman at the finish. He is the first Briton since Steve Cram in 1983 to win a world championship title over the classic middle distance. It was the second medal for the Ingebrigtsen family after 2017, when Filip won bronze.
Discus, men: Slovenia’s Kristjan Čeh won gold with a world championship record of 71.13 meters. Virgilijus Alekna from Lithuania has held the old record of 70.17 meters since the 2005 World Cup in Helsinki. The Lithuanians and the Alenka family still had something to celebrate: Virgilijus’ son Mykolas (69.27) and Andrius Gudžius (67.55) won silver and bronze. Favorite defending champion Daniel Ståhl (67.10) from Sweden finished fourth ahead of his teammate Simon Pettersson (67.00).
200 meters, men: 100m World Champion Fred Kerley apparently injured himself in the semifinals over 200m and missed out on making the final. No information was initially given about the reason for the complaints and possible effects on a start in the 4×100 meter relay for the USA on Saturday evening (local time) in Eugene. Kerley had obviously slowed down and run rough on the home stretch. Kerley’s teammate and 200 meter top favorite Noah Lyles ran the best time, finishing in 19.62 seconds.
400 meter hurdles, women: Carolina Krafzik was 0.15 seconds short of reaching the semi-finals. In her pre-run, she finished fifth in 56.24 seconds and was eliminated as narrowly as possible. Femke Bol from the Netherlands was fastest over the stadium loop with 53.90 seconds. World record holder and Olympic champion Sydney McLaughlin from the USA controlled her lead in 53.95 seconds.
200 meters, women: Jessica-Bianca Wessoly clearly missed making it into the final. The 25-year-old from Mannheim finished in 23.33 seconds and thus had the third-worst time of all semi-finalists. The fastest was top favorite Shericka Jackson from Jamaica, who needed 21.67 seconds and was not yet at his full potential.
